Dr_MechanoEU

Edward smiled and stood up, "I will definitely consider your offer William..." hands over a card, "That's my current address...no doubt one of your technical minded people has found it already...stop by for a visit sometime if I don't come to you first..."

Edward looked at the other two, "well it's been fun kids but obviously you lot aren't listening to reason...so do whatever it is you do and have fun..."

Edward stepped behind one of the pillars, there was an orange glow and a flash as he teleported.

He looked to the drone that had been overlooking the meeting the whole time, "Did you get their voices and managed to scan their bodies for a holographic projector belt to be able to project around me?"

The drone nodded, "be thankful you're the only one that actually showed me any courtesy William...the other two are about to be at each others throats..."

Edward shook his head.

"I will kindly refuse your offer...a genuis does not get on his hands and knees for the likes of people who are willing to throw perfectly good money at a problem until it goes away instead of finding another, much cheaper solution to things.."

He looked at all of them, "in that case, if a full alliance, which is both a shame AND a wasted opportunity to take what is rightfully ours, that item in question being Paragon City, is out of the question then I propose we atleast stop agression between the four of us, a non-aggression pact as CX put it...to cease all bickering and insquabbling between us, it wasted valuable resources keeping an eye on each other that could be used for better ends, such as keeping an eye on hero movements and what they plan for us..."

Edward shook his head, "it is such a shame to see that such intelligent people can't get over their own past and work together...Lords of humanity we are not..."

Edward smirked, "consider my attacks a warning then, as I said, if I could pull something like this off, what's to stop one of the heroes figuring it all out and going vigilante on our backsides, if I wanted to I could have blown up both Castle Bathory...and I don't mean the useless masonry fascade at the front, along with Pistols Manor AND corrupted every single data file in the Corporations base...but this was only to get your gathered attention..."

"As for what I would have brought to this now obviously failed idea of an alliance is my genuis, my detailed knowledge of Paragon and it's heroes and more importantly the only one to be able to manafacture Superadine outside of the family...a profitable venture if you ever saw one...not to mention free genetically engineered and completely loyal superbeings for bodyguards..."

Edward shrugged and finished his coffee..."oh well, atleast I can say I tried..."

Edward chuckled, "not just an alliance with me Godmother Pistol but an alliance with the Court and the Corporation, surely even you can see that it would benefit you."

Edward smiled, "you have many men under your control but you don't have the science to go with it, sure you could kidnap a scientist and make him do something for you but if I know heroes well enough a rescue would be staged. The Corporation brings with it the man power and it's many contact you don't have, the Court brings with it enough magical might to smite anything in their path, you would bring to this organisation more man power, more funds and also contacts within the family."

Edward smirked, "you can try to belittle me all you want but I'm not the one having rotten garden produce lobbed at their home now is it...I apologise...I should not followed my baser instincts to return like for like...now, perhaps with my explanation you see the benefits of this alliance?"

Edward smiled, "first William, let me consider the offer, I will need time to think it over...I appreciate that Paragon isn't exactly a place where you struggle to survive"

Edward looked to Pistol, "first off, thanks for the compliments, secondly, the real reason I called you all here wasn't just to hurl the obvious truth at your faces but for another reason entirely...you three hate each other but currently I've got you hating me more...which proves that given the right incentive you three can work together."

Edward looked all three of them over for a moment, weighing them up, "what I propose is an alliance between the four of us...a sharing of information on hero movements, however I also see that control, atleast underground control, of the Rogue Isles and Paragon also needs to be split between the three of you, I myself have no need for control over Paragon, it's not something I want."

"That's what I propose, you three are the biggest villain organisations in the Rogue Isles except the likes of Arachnos, Crey or the Council, your influence expands over a bigger area than say the Freakshow or the Goldbrickers. I say we carve up Paragon, assign everyone areas of control and STOP GOD DAMN BICKERING AMONGST YOURSELVES LIKE CHILDREN!"

"Seriously, how old are you people, some are old enough to be buried somewhere in my family tree several hundred years ago and yet you still bicker and fight like children with [censored]-for-tat revenge stuff or snubbing each other socially, if you three work together what makes you think any hero could stop any of you?"

"You three are THE most powerful people, hell you could probably take down Recluse if you really wanted to and if it wasn't for the stability he offers the Isles and the fact his resources aren't exactly limited or overwhelming I'm sure you would have done by now, so stop fighting, talk to each other and work together."

"As for protection Countess...if I was to be afraid of you three I would place Pistol and William higher than yourself...Pistol I have fought first hand while she was in a rage and lost and Mr Breaker controls a lot of people who could probably outshine your people by several hundred miles of creativity and visciousness..."

"Anyway...enough insults...you've heard my proposal, an alliance between the three biggest groups in the Rogue Isles, now tell me, what exactly could each of you bring to this prospective alliance if you were to join it?"

Amy looked at Ryan and shook her head, "I'm getting a feeling Dad is going off the deep end...he's not usually this active, normally I can reach him on my cell phone or emails but his cell phone is always switched off, not even going to voice mail and all my emails are returned as if the address didn't exist any more...Dad has shut himself away for the past two weeks, I didn' think he was planning something this big especially not attacks of this scale..."

Amy thought for a moment, "the only lead I can give you as to his whereabouts are his address in Mercy Isle apart from that Dad keeps a lot of stuff secret from me...I think it's the whole hero and villain divide going on, I love him because he's my father...but I am really worried about him now..."

((it's fine...any member of the assault villain organisations can join, as Edward mentioned, the invitation wasn't restricted to the person it was addressed to)).

Edward stood up with a smirk, tossing the paper into the middle of the table, "I've done something you three never could have done...I got to them...I've got them riled, asking questions about how safe they are in their own little bases, I've got heroes truly afraid in their own homes. I managed to create more fear and more anger in Paragon than the three of you combined in a days work."

"What's more important is I got to you...as I said you aren't untouchable...what if my attacks had been more maliscious in nature, what then huh? If I can figure out how to get to you...what about the brightest and best among Paragon, compared to some of them I'm a FREAKING SIMPLETON!"

Edward slammed his cybernetic fist down on the table, there was a cold rage in his eyes, insanity lay behind them...something truly rare to behold, nobody had seen Edward in this state of fury before, even his old nemesis Britannic hadn't seen him like this.

"You ask anyone on the streets of Paragon...what villains name is on their lips...MINE! You three, you use to be glorious...now look at you...it's all shadow plays and bluffing. Pistol you're nolonger notorious to anyone outside of the Rogue Isles, people in Paragon just don't fear you anymore...they fear me because I'm the one striking at their homes, their bases of operations, I'm the one which brings chaos and wakes them from their fitfull slumbers to face what I bring.

"Countess Bathory...you pretend to be someone who lords it over humanity and yet you still skulk in the shadows like a rat, gnawing a little here and there at the edges, playing your little games but when was the last time you actually did anything to Paragon...when was the last time you saw a hero, a REAL hero give you a look of sheer terror. You can play your games but nobody is afraid of you anymore, too much time spent in the shadows and not enough time spent in the cold harsh moonlight..."

Edward turned to William, "out of this bunch William, you get off the lightest with both my prank and my tirade and that's not just because you're an old friend but because you actually do what you set out to do, your mercenaries for hire and you do it damn well but you ever think it would be nice to have heroes shiver in fear at even the mention of your organisation?"

"All of you can continue to play your little games, your little machinations but when it comes down to it...your simply nothing, all your schemes come to naught because unless you make it obvious, the heroes wont care...the time for being subtle has long since past..."

Edward pauses a moment, taking a deep breath...as he ranted and raved nether-energy had begun to swell around him...this was a different Mechano to the one anyone had seen.

"What's more...yeah you want to get rid of me but you forgetting something, you NEED ME!"

He glared at all of the assembled...though oddly except for Spruk.

"Why do you need me? Because I'm out there...I'm this huge distraction to the heroes...who do they hate more right now...any of you or me...I enable you to play your little shadow games and pull puppet strings because if I wasn't there...heroes would be looking for them, I'm the most pressing conscern they have, I'm what keeps them awake at night, I am a both a villain and a hero, I've walked both sides of the path, what I do is for the good of humanity even if they're TOO DAMN DUMB TO REALISE IT!"

For a moment something truly demonic seemed to appear over Eds face...not his normal demonic form but something created from insanity and a rage against a betrayal before vanishing as quickly as it appeared.

Edward once more paused for breath, taking slow, deep breaths the nether-energy that threatened to completely engulf him slowly faded away.

"That's why I've called you here, I've called you all here to show that it's time to buck your ideas up, it's time to get back to the roots of villain to show the heroes why they're afraid of the dark, to show them that we aren't simple costumed marauders that they deal with in their every day boring lives...we're something to be so very afraid of and I believe all of you have lost being part of that primal fear all heroes have..."

Edward moved to sip his coffee and let out a soft sigh before regaining his composure and with a light hearted smile he looked to them all.

"Questions?"

The worst and by far the scariest thing...it was obvious Edward was simply not afraid of any of them when any sane person would have been a nervous wreck simply being confronted with the leaders of the biggest villain groups in the Rogue Isles, Edward was simply insane, any one of them could see it, insanity was a dangerous thing...it meant people were unpredictable.

Amy smiled, "It's alright my boss Jeff has an understanding about the whole heroic things meaning I have to occasionally get off from work early..."

Amy settled down next to Ryan on sofa, "so what is it Ryan, something the matter?"

Smiles to himself.

he muttered, quietly but loud enough to be heard, "Some people just don't know the meaning of informal..."

Edward took another sip of his coffee before looking at the assembled...

"Pistol...shame you didn't bring your lovely friend Spruk with you...I hear he's a big fan of all things anarchic...still it's good to see you looking well..."

Edward checked his watch, "still a couple of minutes before we begin...if I know William he will be punctual..."

Edward chuckles, "William is an old friend of mine so naturally I would select him over Sebastian...still if Sebastian wishes to come I have no objections, the invites did not state for you to come alone...infact as you can probably tell...I do love an audience.."

Edward smiled, "ah...Countess Bathory, it's good to see, as to why your here...well we shall just have to wait for the other invitees to show up now...it would be rude of me to start without them..."

Edward grinned, "You know Pistol and Headbreaker quite well don't you?"

Edward took a sip of his coffee and pushed a copy of yesterdays (the 14th of January) paper with the title 'Mad Mechano Hits Heroes Homes!', "Paper?"

Amy pressed an ear to her comm unit and shrugged, pushing the large steel beam onto the crane, securing it and then waving for Bill, the crane operator to begin lifting it.

She quickly moved to Jeff the Foreman, "sorry boss...somethings come up, hero business..."

Jeff just sighed, "sure thing Amy...it's nearly finishing time as it is, don't mind you clocking off early.."

"Cheer sweetie..." Amy quickly changed out of her blue overalls and her hard hat into her locker before pounding off out of Faultline.

Not too long later she was stood outside Ryan's office and knocked on the door waiting patiently to be let in.

((this is a follow-on from The Big Plan...personal invites have been dispatched to the three leaders of the Villain groups who were 'assaulted' and as such unless your a member of The Gang, The Cout of the Blood Countess or The Corporation attendence is not allowed)).

January 15th: 7:55pm

Edward sat there in the Pocket D Tiki lounge, drinking some coffee...checking his watch for a moment, he had chosen this particular location for obvious reason, he could talk to those invited without having his head cut off on being bound by demonic rites...Zero tolerated no such thing and even Edward had to admit, the power of Zero far outstripped his own.

"I do hope they are punctual...I do not tolerate tardiness for such things..."

Oddly Edward was alone, none of his robotic family flanked him as was to be expected.

((oh of course Crimson Archer, this is just for a future thing...hell you can even blow up the van but it's just a note saying that if left undealt with, the annoyances will switch themselves off...upto you when)).

Edward smiled as he saw his third daughter, his genetic one unlike his second Amy who he merely created but still considered his daughter and his first daughter Elise the assault bot, Edward had a weird family to say the least.

Edward returned the hug before looking at the device, "hmm possibly...but for now we need to get the lab set up...there is much to do..."

Edward grinned, "I have many enemies now who all have one thing in common, they hate me...isn't it nice to see people band together..." he chuckled softly.

Edward moved to sort his lab with the help of his robotic family.


((the gas from the car shuts off after a couple of minutes, the white noise from the van switches to playing melodious if incredibly dull lift music and after a day or when Omega purges the system everything returns to normal. If it hadn't of been destroyed the sign would have exploded anyway.

Once again Thank you to all involved that granted me permission now I expect much plottage to come from this...I feel Edward may have just become a marked man on both sides of the conflict...still that's the idea...expect more from your chaos obsessed mad scientist toon!))

Edward had begun hurriedly packing things into boxes, "Alright kids we're moving out...that signal was too easy to trace and not only that...any of my old friends will know where I live...we're moving to one of the labs in Cap Au Diable..."

Edward pressed a button, the emergency teleporter to one of his backup labs wasn't exactly the safest way to move around the Isles but currently he couldn't risk going on an overland route.

He bundled as much of his equipment into the teleporter as he could before pressing the switch...one of the drones had been dispatched to the lab before hand and noted the equipments safe arrival.

Edward continued bundling in equipment before the lab was completely bare...Edward smiled to himself.

"ah where to go from here...really should think more than one plan at a time..." he chuckled as he teleported to his new lab.

Ed hurried about his place, making sure everything was in order, papers were everywhere, design schematics, notes and finally a piece of paper with his ten point plan.

"I need this to go perfectly, it's the biggest thing yet..."

He looked to his family, "we all ready to go?"

They nodded, hooking themselves into the mainframe before taking control of the broadcasting satellites, rerouting their signal to pick up Edwards.

Edward took a deep breath in and slowly let it out, standing infront of the camera inside his dingy basement lab, equipment sprawling behind him, just has it always had in his broadcasts. This time he would show the world that he wasn't just some nut...he was someone who could wield power.

2:30pm: January 13
TV screens throughout Paragon begun to flicker and break into static, most heroes knew what was to come as the skull and cog logo flickered onto their screen. Meanwhile in the Rogue Isles an advert break was interupted with the same symbol, breaking the transmission. Along with the normal logo announcing there would be chaos to follow were a few words,'please stand by, important announcement to follow'.

Finally and simultaneously Edward appeared on TV screens throughout Paragon and the Rogue Isles...a malevolant smirk on his face.

"Greetings people...now Paragon...I know what your asking yourself 'Hey Dr Mechano...it's not fair, you've been picking on us this whole time, there's a whole island filled with super powered people you could pick on too' and you would be right. Today isn't just some fun for the people of Paragon, it's time to get those Islanders involved as well..."

He leaned in close to the camera, "what I'm about to do proves that no matter who you are...you aren't untouchable. There are some who believe themselves to be above everything and everybody else...believing themselves to be untouchable...and you know what that brings?"

Edward put a hand to his ear, "well done...complacency which in turns leads to stagnation and I simply can't abide stagnation, it leads to evolutionary dead ends..."

Edward gave a wide grin, "Which is why I'm going after people I think have got a little too complacent as of late, people, as I said before, believe themselves to be nigh untouchable...relax regular citizens...all you have to do is sit back and watch the fireworks that result from this, no harm will come to you this day...though I do hope you appreciate the effort I put into all this entertainment you have no IDEA the amount of money I had to spend paying for things or paying people off..."

Edward chuckled, "now I must dash...the advert break is ending here in the Isles...and I'm not stupid enough to talk over Arachnos funded and scheduled programming...so there is but one thing left to say..."

Edward threw his arms back and gave a manaical laugh, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

With that the broadcast shut off.

In Paragon a small remote control car quietly waited for its moment...the headlights flickered on as someone entered the Unity Vigil building...zipping in behind them it pulled up into the middle of the lobby...a picture of Edward with two thumbs up and a wide grin flipped up from the top of it as the car begun spewing out a green noxious gas. The gas in itself was relatively harmless...the effect however was to induce the same kind of feeling as a rather heavy night out of drinking, a drunken stupor befalling anyone who took in a breath of the gas.

Over the NHU base (atleast Edward believed it to be...the Amy official had been paid well enough for it to be correct) a crop duster flew overhead, instead of insecticide the crop duster was spraying paint, bright Neon Pink paint to be exact, making a few passes enough to cover the entire building before simply crashing into the mountains some distance away ((there was no pilot but there seems to be a remote controlled system from what could be made out of the wreckage))

Atop the Milita dugout a white van pulled up, a single skull got out, and opened the side of the van, flicking the switch and running like hell. Moments later the loud speakers ontop of the van begun to emit white noise on a level only a super sonic enhanced shout could be heard above...the white noise filling the area.

At huntington Manor a small remote control aircraft was flying overhead, just low enough to make it to the roof. The automated defense systems popped up...shooting down the small aircraft but it was already too late..the device it was carrying dropped onto the roof...there was a high pitched whine and then a dull fizzling sound as the device emitted an EMP pulse.

At Infinity building, home of recently outed true vigilant Infinitron there were small popping noises as charges holding up a banner unfurled down the length of the building. The Banner consisted of a picture of Infinitron with the words, written in bold red letters, "THIS MAN HAS THE RIGHT IDEA".

Meanwhile in the Rogue Isles next to Castle Bathory the ground shook as a carbomb detonated, taking out the front of the building, falling masonry and rubble strewn about the place.

At the headquarters of The Corporation their computers begun to freeze and seize up...the monitor going off for a second only to come back on replaced with a picture of Edward, once more grinning and holding two thumbs up, the word 'Smile' written underneath. No matter what happened the picture seemed to stay on the screen even if the underlying files had not been touched and no data corrupted.

Infront of the manor owned by the notorious Pistol and used by her associates something arose out of the water a very large flashing neon sign saying "PISTOL LIVES HERE...TAKE PICTURES!" with a blinking arrow atop the sign pointing towards the manor and a small spotlight illuminating it from the front.

Edward leaned back in his chair with a grin, "oooh it's going to take them ages to sort this one out..."

So I've got the go ahead from the Corp as well...just making sure before I start but yes Ed is going to make a lot of powerful enemies...but he just so damn crazy!

Edit: Oh and after this...I think the UV might be after him just that little bit more...

Right...nearly there, just waiting on the word back from the bosses at The Corporation and then I can get the plot underway.

Thanks again all for joining in and granting me permission for the nefarious deeds to come...

It's a shame to lose you but it's nice to know even in City of Heroes love can blossom.

As for some of your points I will say I agree (namely the wonkey difficulty at times between regular and certain TFs)

I am personally holding out hope that Issue 14 isn't just Issue 13.5, I have fingers crossed and hold out hope.

Issue 13 had a lot stripped out of it, either the VEATs were early or the MA was delayed to be worked on into a better state of affairs. Back when Positron made that announcement both the VEATs and the MA were included and if that was the case, it would have been a truly huge Issue but instead Issue 13 was kind of spread over Issues 12-14 and thus not as massive as initally thought out.

I can't say I'm not worried about the state of the EU, if it's got even FFM worrying then I too am worried despite assurances from GR, that little niggling feeling in the back of my head.

Still I love this game and will continue to play it...as I said initially it is said to see you and your friends go, it's always a bad thing to lose people with as much experience as yourselves, infact the loss of anyone is always a bit of a downer.

Good luck and God Speed.

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But it isn't is it??? Most people wont reply to that as it isnt polite enough and doesn't convey the team size, what you are doing, what zone, wether you have IO's, what shoe size you are, and if you have a mouse on the left side of the keyboard or the right.

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Sarcasm dually noted

Wasn't until I got to 'what shoe size you are' until I realised you were being sarcastic since I know some players will ask for level, zone, mission type and mob type in a tell...if you wanted to team...what do every one but the first matter?

*shrugs*

just as the 'I refuse to send a tell' you get people going 'I wont join unless practically everything is told to me' takes all kinds I suppose.

*facepalms*

So you're too stubborn to simply ask "want a team?" that's 3 words, count them 3!

And as for permission on inviting a friend round it all depends if their married/living with partner or not.

"want to come round to watch the match?"

"Yeah...erm...probably should ask the Missus first..."

See...happens in real life too..

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And was going to create logistical and information issue. Look how we tend to know things last as a simple example of that.

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Not strictly true...for example any events we get to see many hours earlier on live than our US counterparts we also tend to recieve information in our mornings which means for a while the US players were coming to the EU to find out knowledge first with regards Issue announcements.

Still it's nice to know that the servers are actually busier than before according to GR and that it was Palladiums choice rather than being forced to go elsewhere.

Aye but the widow cape isn't a double cape, it's a split tail buttcape, also it is limited to your initial Arachnos costume, thus you would be unable to use more than one cape with said costume.

When even the staunchest of the non-merger defenders are getting worried, you know it's time to start worring.

Personally I'm waiting on the official word from GR.

If this really is the begining of the end for CoX EU (I doubt it but it is worrying) I'd rather they just offered us all transfers to the US side (passport badge please!) of things instead of merging the servers (fingers crossed I get to keep my namesake...though I doubt it) since merging servers would probably just delay the inevitable a tad.

Anyway...lets wait to hear the news from GR himself before we all start jumping to conclusions.

The chance to Procs aren't affected while your set bonuses are (unless they're the product of a Purple set).

Inventions can be a tad weird like that.

For example the +stealth IO is also unaffected by level alteration as long as you have that power (if it's slotted in sprint it is thus always affective).